Cellular-related quality of service (“QoS”) issues are a significant source of frustration for service providers as well as their customers. Common QoS issues include bandwidth limitations, jitter, delay and latency, packet loss, and interference. QoS issues may result in a number of problems for customers, potentially causing customers to change service providers. In one example, a customer may experience a “dropped call,” in which a phone call unexpectedly ends. In another example, a customer may experience a slow data transfer rate that is not suitable for transferring high-bandwidth content, such as video and music. QoS problems may result in unacceptable quality of service, causing customer dissatisfaction ranging from annoyance to anger.
One issue that commonly affects cellular customers is a temporary interference condition. Generally speaking, a temporary interference condition arises when two or more cellular devices are used within a close proximity for a short period of time, especially when one device is transmitting signals while another is receiving signals. A typical example may occur when two cellular customers walk past each other on a street while each cellular customer is utilizing a cellular device. Prior to and after the two cellular customers walk past each other, both cellular customers may experience a satisfactory QoS. However, during a time period when the two cellular customers are in close proximity, the radio frequency (“RF”) signals transmitted to and from one cellular device may interfere with the RF signals transmitted to and from the other cellular device and/or the attempted reception of RF signals. This interference may be exacerbated if both respective cellular devices share the same cellular tower. Although only temporary, the effective result of the interfering RF signals can be a severe and unacceptable decrease in QoS.